214 General A. W. Greely — Bering^s First Voyage. 



1731, une carte de cette extremite orientale de I'Asie. J'ai marque aussi 

 sur cette carte les dernieres terres connues de I'Ameriqne, les plus voisines 

 de cette partie septentrionale de I'Asie, afin de faire voir ce qui restoit en- 

 core d'inconnu entre-deux. On trouvera dans ce recueil une reduction de 

 cette carte, avec le Memoire que j'ai dresse dans ce temsla, & lu al'Acade- 

 mie, dans lequel je rends raison de la construction de cette carte." 



Only one volume of de I'Isle's essays appeared, so that the 

 map and memoh' promised hi the introduction were never, so 

 far as can be learned, published in their original form. The 

 statements made by de I'Isle, however, unless definitely refuted, 

 should be given full credit, seeing that the work was published 

 by the Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg, to which the majj 

 and memoir were presented, as is claimed, only seven years 

 earlier. A doubt does, however, exist as to the date of the mai3 

 made by de I'Isle. On this point Adelung, in his " Histor}^ of 

 Northeastern Voyages." Halle, 1768, page 569, evidently quoting 

 from Miiller, says : 



" On the 17th of April, 1732, the order was, therefore, sent from the 

 privy Cabinet to the Senate, which thereupon inquired of the Academy 

 of Sciences of St. Petersburg what and how much had as yet been found 

 out about Kamschatka, the surrounding countries and waters. The 

 Academy confided the making of the report to Mr. Delisle, who prepared 

 a chart upon which Kamschatka, Jeso, according to the descri]jtion of the 

 crew upon the Castricom, the Staten island. Company island, and the coast 

 of Gama were designated. This chart was supplemented by a memoir in 

 which he described the discoveries already made and suggested various 

 routes for making new ones. He expressed himself in regard to those 

 routes in the following manner : ' If one have attained the northern bound- 

 ary of Asia, and at the same time the eastern limits, as far as Captain Ber- 

 ing went on his first voyage, one cannot fail to arrive in America, and 

 might even choose the route, either northeast or southeast, whichever he 

 prefers, as he would have, at most, only 600 miles to pass over. 2. Or, 

 without venturing so far, it would perhaps be better and more comfortable 

 ,to sail from the east coast of Kamschatka, go directly east, to look for the 

 neighboring country which Bering found traces of in his first voyage. 3. 

 Finally, he thought that if they should sail southeast from Kamschatka 

 they would perhaps more speedily and more certainly discover the country 

 seen by Juan de Gama.' " 



Can the inconsistency between the dates, as given by Miiller 

 and Adelung on the one hand, and hy de I'Isle on the other, be 

 reconciled, or is it apparent rather than real ? As Bering, accord- 

 ing to the Russian marine officer (Waxel ?) returned to St. Peters- 

 burg on March 1, 1730, it is reasonal^le to suppose that de I'Isle, 



